The present invention relates to electrophotographic equipment of the type electrostatically forming a latent image on a photoconductive element, developing the latent image by a toner, and transferring the resulted toner image to a recording medium. More particularly, the present invention is concerned with a device incorporated in such equipment for collecting a waste toner having been removed from the photoconductive element after the image transfer.
An electrophotographic copier, laser printer or similar equipment of the type described is extensively used today. It is a common practice with such equipment to incorporate a device for collecting a waste toner which is removed from a photoconductive element by a cleaning device after the transfer of a toner image to be discarded. A predominant type of waste toner collecting device has an auger for conveying the waste toner to a waste toner storing section. The auger is implemented by, for example, a helical wire which is connected to a drive shaft to be rotated thereby. Usually, the auger is operatively connected to the drive shaft by gears or a belt and pulley device. Specifically, when the drive shaft and auger extend perpendicular to each other, the interconnection thereof is implemented by a worm gear or bevel gears.
A problem with the conventional implementation using a worm gear or bevel gears as stated above is that the waste toner conveyed by the auger is apt to enter and fill the space between nearby teeth of each gear element. It is likely, therefore, that the coactive gear elements are partly brought out of mesh to prevent the auger from rotating smoothly. Further, when use is made of a belt and pulley device for the interconnection of the auger and drive shaft, the waste toner is apt to enter the grooves of the pulleys, causing the belt to slip out of the pulleys.